1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an information processing apparatus and an information processing system for recording output data to a storage unit, and a computer-readable recording medium that contains a program for causing a computer to function as the information processing apparatus explained above.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, it is known that data for output (output data) are transmitted from a client apparatus such as a PC (personal computer) to an output apparatus such as an image forming apparatus, a projection apparatus, and a display apparatus, and output is done in accordance with the output data. This output is considered to be print output in a case of an image forming apparatus. The output is considered to be projection of an image onto a screen in a case of a projection apparatus. The output is considered to be display of a document or an image on a display in a case of a display apparatus.
Among the above cases, in the case where a print job is transmitted as output data to the image forming apparatus, hold print function (on demand print function) is known, in which the print job is once accumulated and output in accordance with a command given by a user. This is because when the image forming apparatus outputs the print job as soon as receiving the print job, the print material which has been output may be left and abandoned.
However, when this hold print function allows the print job to be accumulated without any time limit, the capacity of the storage unit is occupied, and therefore, it is suggested to automatically delete a job from the apparatus when a holding period passes.
For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-39771 indicates that, when print job data are registered, a holding period is set, and when the holding period passes, the print job data are deleted.
However, when the holding period is set, and a user is allowed to set the holding period in units of jobs, then the user may set unnecessarily long period, and there is a problem in that it is impossible sufficiently obtains the effect of reducing the capacity of the storage unit.
On the other hand, an administrator may uniformly set uniform holding period, but in this case, a print job which a user is planning to output later may also be deleted against the will of the user, and this may make it inconvenient.
This kind of problem may also occur even when output data other than print jobs are accumulated or when accumulation is done with a storage unit provided outside of the output apparatus.
This invention is made in view such circumstances, and it is an object of this invention to alleviate the occupied capacity in the storage unit while making it less inconvenient when output data are accumulated in the storage unit.